Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Sandoval blew chance

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

WEEKEND EDITION

September 4 - 7, 2004

Celebrating Labor Day.

Tomorrow the entire country takes pause, between the barbecues and the swimming parties, to honor the working men and women of the United States. We do so with the full knowledge that those who contribute most to this country's well-being -- whether in the trenches of Iraq or some far away war zone to keep us safe, or the trenches of American business to keep us prosperous -- are regular folks who get up every morning and give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay.

So, how do we explain to the working men and women of our state the abject failure to do the job by Nevada's attorney general, Brian Sandoval. I am talking about the job he has sworn to do, that of protecting the people of this great state, and the way he failed to show up for work when he had his moments at the Republican National Convention this past week. Brian had the distinct honor and privilege of being invited to address the delegates and, by extension, the American people at the GOP get-together in New York. It was an opportunity that is rarely afforded the attorney general of a small state unless that state is one of a handful in play for the presidential sweepstakes this November.

As we all know, Nevada will probably be one of the last two or three battlegrounds in the 2004 election, and that makes Sandoval and every other public official in this state important to both sides. So, what should have been on the Nevada attorney general's mind as he approached the podium of national prominence? Let me try the first answer. How about YUCCA MOUNTAIN?

Brian Sandoval is the chief legal officer of the state of Nevada. As such, it is his responsibility to prosecute our case against the federal government and all those who would send trucks and trains full of deadly radioactive waste to our state for the next 30 years. Until this past week, he was doing reasonably well because he and his lawyers convinced the appeals court in Washington, D.C., to agree with the state that the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency failed to follow the law when it came to the science surrounding Yucca Mountain. Specifically, the Court of Appeals found that the DOE and the EPA -- both agencies of the federal government and both led by political appointees of President George W. Bush -- ignored the law by ignoring the National Academy of Science when it said that any repository must be made safe for hundr eds of thousands of years.

Instead, the EPA came up with an arbitrary 10,000-year standard that proved politically sound but violated any semblance of sound scientific thought. In short, Nevada's claim that politics and not science was driving Yucca Mountain was validated. Of course, the Yucca fight is not over. Not by a long shot. President Bush has doubled and redoubled his own efforts to make sure that Yucca Mountain opens on time so his friends in the nuclear power industry have a place to bury their mess.

Since he will control those he appoints to the EPA and the DOE, his re-election is key to whether or not Nevada families have to suffer multiple generations of health and economic problems in the future. President Bush already broke his promise to Nevadans in 2000 that he would make a decision based on sound science. The court of appeals has found clearly that science had nothing to do with the Yucca Mountain issue. In fact, science was ignored by the very people President Bush relied upon for scientific information. How comfortable for him!

Sandoval had the perfect opportunity to tell the entire country what is wrong with the Yucca Mountain plan and why it is dangerous for all Americans. He had the perfect opportunity to tell Americans why science was ignored by the president and why American families would be put in jeopardy across the country as a result. He had the perfect opportunity to tell the delegates and all Americans why the Republican Party's all-out support for Yucca Mountain was a bad idea based on bad science. But he didn't. He never showed up for the work he was elected to do. And Sandoval is not alone. From the governor on down, not one GOP elected official in this state will express anything more than "disappointment" with a president of his own party who has made it part of his crusade to bury Nevadans under tens of thousands of tons of deadly radioactive waste.

These are the people the voters in Nevada have entrusted with their health and safety and security, and they continue to be found wanting on the one issue that threatens us in all three areas. If I didn't know any better, I would think that the people we elected to high office, the people who swore an oath to protect and defend us, have been more concerned with protecting and defending the political life of George W. Bush at the expense of Nevadans. And, now that I think of it, why should I know any better? Sandoval was there, the spotlight was on and the microphones were live. It was the perfect time for him to share Nevada's message with the entire country. What happened? Why did he go silent? Is winning an election more important than protecting the lives and livelihoods of Nevada families?

The answer to that question is for each of us to decide this coming November. The way it looks, the election will be so close that Nevada, by itself, could make the difference. If that is true, each of us will have to decide whether to leave the fate of our families, our jobs and our security in the hands of people we elected to protect us and who have failed to show up for work, or to take responsibility for ourselves and vote for the people who will end the madness of Yucca Mountain. There is a clear choice on Yucca Mountain. Labor Day should give us plenty of time to figure it out.

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